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Nov. 3 (UPI) -- An initial public offering by the Ant Group, which was expected to be one of the largest in history, has been postponed after co-founder Jack Ma met with Chinese banks and regulators. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said on Tuesday that the Ant Group IPO, which had been scheduled for Thursday, will not occur due to "major issues."
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The company, a spinoff from Ma's e-commerce site Alibaba, was expected to set a record $34 billion with its IPO, split between shares raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Ma and Ant Group senior executives met Monday with the Chinese Central Bank, People's Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Neither side disclosed what was discussed.
Beijing regulators have strengthened fiscal safeguards, called for lending caps and asked companies like the Ant Group to pay at least 30% of loans handled on behalf of banks.
It wasn't initially clear when the IPO may occur.
"China's financial system is in the phase of strengthening regulation and controlling risks," said analyst Zhu Ning, a finance professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "Ant Group's business may not be entirely in line with what regulators want.
"What is worrying regulators, and what the banks don't like, is that Ant Group has generated revenues from its lending arm, but hasn't shouldered the correlated risks."
